This Self-Rolling Yoga Mat is Like a Giant Slap-on Bracelet

Ace of Base, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, rollerblading with your Discman on Anti-Skip, Pogs and we can’t forget about the slap-on bracelet. Sure, it hurt every other time you slapped one on but it was a popping, slapping accessory that will never be outdone. It was just so convenient. Putting on and taking off a bracelet by yourself can be difficult. The slap bracelet solved this problem.

The key to coming up with a good invention is to find a simple, effective and fun solution to a common problem. Can you think of a common problem in the yoga space?

I’m making the following story up but it was probably true:

One day a young man named Aaron was rolling up his yoga mat up after savasana. The hot yoga class he just completed was brutal. He was exhausted but he was on a mission. All he needed to do was roll up his mat, grab his towel, and he could finally go talk to the girl of his dreams. Let’s call her Sara (with no h because h’s are ew). He had been building up the courage to ask Sara out for weeks now. Today was going to be the day. The theme of the class was “Be Brave” and Aaron was feeling it. As he rolled up his mat and went for the door, something felt off. The mat had rolled up at an angle and was very awkward to carry. He stopped, laid the mat back out and tried rolling it up again… and again, and again. Aaron finally got the mat rolled up on the fourth try. He walked into the hall, turned the corner and there was Sara, talking to another guy. It was in this moment of defeat that Aaron decided to be brave. He walked up to Sara, slapped one of his business card slap-on bracelets onto her wrist and walked out of the yoga studio with an idea.

Aaron Thornton, a fitness and yoga enthusiast, decided to come up with a solution to the annoying problem of rolling up your yoga mat. He set a goal to design a fitness / yoga mat that will roll up by itself and stay rolled up tightly while traveling or in storage without the need for straps or bags.

Inspired by a simple slap-on wristband and through many trials and errors, Aaron created a prototype of the very first self-rolling yoga mat. A year later, Aaron along with his business partner and co-founder Dino May, and a long-time friend Yu Tsai, creative director of 88 Phases have made something incredible. They are bringing one of the best parts of the 90’s to yoga through the first ever designed self-rolling yoga mat.

Here’s how it works:

It appears as though yogis are digging this idea! The YoYo Mat’s KickStarter campaign is 130% funded with 33 days still left to go (as this article is being written). This is going to happen and we are excited to see if the product performs as good as it looks! If it’s anything as popular as the Slap Bracelet, we will be seeing these mats everywhere.

Would you use this over your manual rolling mat? Let us know in the comments below.